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I am sorry to say but that’s what happens when you don’t have a proper product management org. Unbelievable in a large company like Apple but they do not have a
by ulfw 8y ago
I am sorry to say but that’s what happens when you don’t have a proper product management org. Unbelievable in a large company like Apple but they do not have a Head of Product / CPO and are basically still a Sales and Marketing company with attached Engineering departments.
There has been something very very wrong with products not getting out the door at Apple over the last few years. How does it take years to update a MacPro, a MacMini, an iPhone SE, Airpower never made it out the door, Airpods delayed by half a year, the iPhone - it’s biggest seller is on a 3year refreshment cycle now instead of 2 years, other peripherals like Airport Wifi cancelled and please let’s not even get started about software which was either cancelled (Aperture) or is being outpaced due to slow release cycles.
Apple needs to get a ship / get out the door mentality again!
- xuki 8y agoSteve Jobs was their Head of Product :(.
- thruhiker 8y agoI've heard product managers described as "mini-CEOs" before. I don't think it's a comprehensive description, but it speaks to ownership mentality I think.
- emdowling 8y agoProduct Managers should never be mini-CEOs. That is a model naive, ego-driven junior PMs adopt. Good PMs should be servant leaders, doing whatever it takes to ensure their team can have maximum impact and ownership. A big part of that is identifying new opportunities, both within the org and outside of it, and empowering engineers and designers to own what they are working on.
- ekrebs 8y agoYou just described a good CEO. Considering you limited it to engineers and designers, maybe a miniature CEO.
- repolfx 8y agoThe concept of a servant leader is a contradiction, isn't it. 'empowering to own' is a pretty weird construction too. Tech companies need people with very clear product visions that inspire their troops to build something excellent, even when those same troops are having their own opinions overridden by those of the visionary. Those people are usually CEOs and often but not always former engineers themselves. It's very hard to create a coherent, interestingly new product when you can't impose your will on a team because invariably to be new or innovative you must be controversial, and it's hard for non-CEOs to manage that internal controversy.
- ulfw 8y agoThat is exactly right
- samstave 8y agoThe vast amount of vendor management makes the scal of PMing apple products rather unwieldy...
- tomaskafka 8y ago> How does it take years to update a MacPro, a MacMini, an iPhone SE Creating market hunger - these are all lower volume products for Apple, with no real competition, so I guess they are on a slow updates.
- ulfw 8y agoWell they will never become high volume if they get updated every five years or more - that’s for sure.